From James Eli Shiffer, MNCOGI board member and the Star Tribune’s watchdog and data editor
When public officials take forever to fulfill records requests, one of the most common excuses is that they need to redact information that’s not public. Under Minnesota law, they can’t charge for the time spent redacting, but the process can result in long delays in handing over records that are undeniably public. Star Tribune staff writer Eric Roper told the story of how he is still waiting for public records that he requested from the city of Minneapolis seven months ago. The city’s explanation? The time has been spent redacting documents that fill a “banker’s box.”